A surly teenager who spends all of his or her time at the mall with friends. Typically seen standing around glaring at customers -- sometimes these fascinating creatures will pick fights with mall security and call them "fascists" for enforcing the mall's loitering bylaws. Also often seen intimidating the elderly people in the clothing stores, they flock back to the "baggy pants with mile-long wallet-chain" section of the clothing store when an employee threatens to call the police.

Those mall rats look like a bunch of hosers, I wish they'd get lives and a job.

Usually, preteens, who have no where else to go on friday or saturday nights since they dont have cars and cant get in anywhere anyway. These youngsters walk around the mall for hours at a time, and usually do not make one single purchase. Also, female mallrats usally wear the sluttiest clothing ever. These girls actually think that there are people to impress at the mall and that they will somehow meet their dream man there.

I went to the mall to get new shoes on friday and i saw the same mall rats pass by me at least ten times!

The Urban Dictionary T-Shirt

A mallrat is a person who spends a long time in a mall (or 'shopping centre' for the British). Especially if the primary intention is not actually shopping. This tends to be young teenagers/preteens, mooching in groups/cliques. Retired people sometimes do this too (in a different way) since they have nothing else to do. Equivalents of this exist for the high street (streetrats?), the park and other places where people 'hang'. This behaviour is caused by:
1. A lack of other things to do in a boring town.
2. A lack of funds, preventing actual activity (like films), but a wide and active social circle.
3. A broken or otherwise annoying home that must be escaped from.
4. School holidays devoid of actual vacationing/activity/homework, creating a sudden excess of free time.
5. Apathy; a lack of motivation, education, employment, a need for distraction in these circumstances.
6. Simply the desire to meet friends in a convenient place.

A mallrat isn't just a teen who hangs around in a mall for ages. A true mallrat displays some of the following characteristics:
1. You never actually buy anything, except perhaps drinks and snacks. You may not even bring money even if you could.
2. You treat the mall as an actual activity in itself, not just a way to meet others, use any facilities, etc.
3. You know the names of the security guards, where they walk, when the shops open, the menus of all the food/drink places, where the garbage is disposed of, the PIN code to the staff entrance doors, etc.
4. You get genuinely interested at the prospect of a new shop opening or a new stand being erected.
5. You beg or blag cigarettes, money, food etc from others.
6. You have 'your spot' where you and your friends always go. You get genuinely annoyed if you see others there and/or attempt to move them if you do.
7. Going to the mall is either so automatic that you don't plan it (you turn up like clockwork there at the same time every day and your friends don't even talk beforehand) or so important that you do indeed plan your visits constantly and build the rest of your life around it.

Now THAT's a definition. Come on, it's so detailed.

"Hey Moe, let's go and hang out at Fremlin's Walk."
"Again? You're such a mallrat."

The Urban Dictionary T-Shirt

One who goes to a mall with no shopping agenda
Mallrats usually know everything that's going around in the mall (I,e: when the Easter bunny stand comes up) and knows about everything about the mall (what stores going where how long a store has been there and what store was there before that store)
also a kick ass movie by Kevin Smith

"You're one of those loser, fucking MALLRAT kids. You don't come here to Work or Shop -- You hang out and act like you fucking live here."